Tokyo’s Firebrand Governor Quits to Form New National Party

TOKYO — Shintaro Ishihara, the firebrand governor of Tokyo whose vocal campaign to secure a set of disputed islands provoked a damaging dispute with China, declared Thursday that he was quitting local politics to start a national party, a move that could win him some say in shaping policy and escalate the territorial dispute.

Mr. Ishihara, a nationalist politician who has said that Japan should develop nuclear weapons and abandon its pacifist Constitution, is considered too far right of the populace to build a party big enough to form a government. But with polls suggesting no clear winner in elections that must be called by August, Mr. Ishihara could potentially become an influential player in a coalition government and push its leaders to take a more nationalistic stance.

Some analysts acknowledged Mr. Ishihara’s potential to become a kingmaker, but said the electoral politics remain very fluid.

“If elections are called before the end of the year, he could become the eye of the storm,” Hirotada Asakawa, an independent political analyst, told the daily Kanagawa Shimbun. But he said that if the election were delayed, Mr. Ishihara could be exposed to more criticism of his record, like his gaffes and Tokyo’s failed bid to land the 2016 Olympics.

At a news conference, Mr. Ishihara said that he intended to cooperate with two other small conservative parties — including one recently formed by the populist mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto — to challenge what he characterized as feckless politicking by the governing Democratic Party and its main opposition, the Liberal Democratic Party.

The announcement comes at a politically fraught time, when China’s rise and assertiveness in the region is unnerving Japan’s leaders and many Japanese, who have supported their country’s refusal to back down in the territorial war of words.

Mr. Ishihara wasted no time on Thursday in hurling insults at China and South Korea, referring to them with the names that Japan used during its colonization of much of East Asia in the early 20th century. He said Japan should do more to develop its natural resources so it can “stop bowing to the will of” its giant neighbor.

He also said Japan should do away with its Constitution, which renounces the country’s right to wage war, as quickly as possible. He said it was ridiculous that Japan had kept a charter that was drafted by the United States after World War II.

Photo

Shintaro Ishihara announced Thursday that he would leave his position as governor of Tokyo to start a national political party.Credit
Koji Sasahara/Associated Press

“I’m 80 years old, and I ask myself: Why does it have to be me? Why can’t the young get their act together?” Mr. Ishihara said. “But if Japan keeps going like this, it will sink into a pit and die.”

Tokyo’s three vice governors will run the city until new elections are held within two months, according to news reports.

Mr. Ishihara, a Liberal Democratic lawmaker until he ran as an independent in 1999, had already made a return to the national stage by prompting the most recent flare-up over the islands that Japan calls the Senkaku and China calls the Diaoyu.

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Last spring, he said he wanted Tokyo to buy several of the islands from their owner, a Japanese citizen, to better defend them from China. Under pressure not to look weak, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda decided the central government would buy the islands instead, a move that apparently was meant to calm the situation but instead created protests across China and led to unofficial boycotts of Japanese goods.

The dispute has seemed to wane a bit recently, although Chinese surveillance ships were spotted near the islands on Thursday for the first time in three weeks, leading Japan’s Foreign Ministry to lodge a protest with Beijing’s ambassador in Tokyo.

Mr. Ishihara, once a novelist, achieved notoriety in the United States with his 1989 book, “The Japan That Can Say No,” which urged a more assertive policy toward America.

Despite his high profile, he made few real inroads in national politics, prompting him to retire in 1995 after a quarter-century in office. He made a political comeback in 1999, however, as mayor of Tokyo, and has won four consecutive terms.

More than once, Mr. Ishihara has landed in trouble for gaffes, notably after last year’s tsunami, when he called it “divine punishment” for what he saw as the country’s general decline amid economic stagnation. He was eventually forced to retract the statement.

Mr. Ishihara’s ability to affect policy will be determined by his party’s performance in national elections for Parliament’s powerful lower house, which chooses the prime minister. With the governing Democrats’ popularity sagging, the opposition Liberal Democrats, under their new hawkish leader, Shinzo Abe, are expected to make big gains — but neither party appears likely to win a majority and will therefore need to join forces with smaller parties to form a government.

Mr. Ishihara did not give details on Thursday of how closely he expected to work with Mr. Hashimoto, whose popularity has made him one of Japan’s most feared politicians. Though Mr. Hashimoto has made some nationalistic statements, the men differ on major issues like nuclear policy. Mr. Ishihara is a staunch supporter of nuclear power, while Mr. Hashimoto has pushed for stronger regulation after last year’s nuclear disaster.

Makiko Inoue contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on October 26, 2012, on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Tokyo Governor Quits to Form New Party. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe